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FARE OF THE COUNTRY

FARE OF THE COUNTRY; California's Prized Wild Mushrooms

By SUSAN BENNER;

Published: May 2, 1993

ONE November afternoon, when I was working for a small newspaper in northern California, a photographer walked in, dropped a pile of huge chanterelles and a few boletes on a counter and invited the staff to take some home. Exactly where he had collected the mushrooms he wasn't saying -- somewhere on the Point Reyes peninsula.

The chanterelles I had encountered previously were golden fluted fungi the size of fingers. These California mushrooms had the color and fluted edges, but they were the size of fists. Although I took the two or three chanterelles that were offered and listened to the discourse on how to clean and cook them, I was afraid to, and they sat on my desk until they dried. Only later, in my neighborhood market in San Francisco, when I saw them labeled Cantharellus cibarius and priced from $16 to $24 a pound, did I buy some, cook them and begin to realize what I had missed.

The wild mushrooms of northern California have flavors and textures -- subtle and complex, buttery and chewy -- not found in their domesticated cousins, as well as wild colors and fantastic shapes. Technically neither animal nor plant, a mushroom is the fruit (reproductive structure) of a fungus, though the word mushroom is used for the fungi that produce the fruit as well. Though some wild mushrooms have been cultivated successfully, including the shiitake, the enoki, the oyster and the common white mushroom most often found in stores, others, particularly boletes and chanterelles, have so far resisted attempts to raise them, and are still found only in the wild.

In California, boletes (Boletus edulis, aereus and barrowsii) and hedgehogs (Dentinum repandum) grow among the pines. Golden chanterelles and the black varieties (Craterellus cinereus and cornucopioides) may be found under redwoods, Douglas firs and other conifers. And among live oaks are found chanterelles and blewits, the aforementioned boletes, horns of plenty and many others, including some of the most poisonous mushrooms known.

Wild mushrooms in northern California are at their most prolific and diverse from late October through March, but morels peak here in May and at least a few species may be found throughout the year, though not always in quantities large enough that those who find them are willing to share. Northern California's wide ranges of altitude and geography, and its changeable weather, particularly along the coast, provide pockets of diverse climates and terrain that support a multiplicity of mycological growth. In May, there may be small, fast flushes of boletes, late flushes of black chanterelles, and some agarics, puffballs, fairy-ring mushrooms and shaggy parasols.

In the field or in the kitchen, wild mushrooms are differentiated by texture, odor and taste, most obviously by the cap -- its smoothness, wetness or dryness, the color of the flesh and gills, how the gills are spaced and attached to the stalk, their thickness and depth, forking pattern and color -- as well as by the size, color and shape of the stem.

Of the thousands of different kinds of wild mushrooms in North America, five or six are deadly poisonous, and others may provoke milder unpleasant reactions in those with whom they disagree. And several of the most dangerous are common. Because some edible mushrooms closely resemble those that are poisonous, one should pick wild mushrooms only with the help of an expert. Though there have been no recent mushroom-induced deaths in California, severe poisonings have been caused by two species: Amanita phalloides, or the death cap, is a tall, thin, graceful-looking fungus in maturity, white and rather lumplike when young. The other, Amanita ocreata, starts out white but discolors with age. Also graceful-looking but highly toxic, it is known as the death angel and the destroying angel.

In some parts of the United States, fungi of the Agaricus genus are considered good quarry for beginners, but not in California. One species, Agaricus californicus, is both mildly poisonous (causing stomach upsets in some people) and common, and several other Agarici are poisonous to different degrees. None, however, is classified as deadly.

When buying mushrooms in a store, you should choose firm, unbruised examples that are as dry as possible but not dried out, with good color but no dark spots, soft areas or moldy stems. A soft bolete stem, for example, may indicate that the mushroom is past its prime, in which case it may have the texture of cotton or be buggy, according to Paul Bertolli, the co-author, with Alice Waters, of "Chez Panisse Cooking" (Random House, 1988). If the cap is slimy and the pores or gills discolored, the mushroom has begun to decay. Chanterelles stored or picked late may take on several times their weight in water and suffer a consequent dilution of flavor, according to Mr. Bertolli. Wild mushrooms, which are fragile and delicately flavored, should be consumed as close to the time of harvesting as possible.

Though there are those who disagree, "Chez Panisse Cooking" recommends that wild mushrooms, like commercially grown mushrooms, not be washed in water. The best method is to brush them clean, wipe with a damp cloth if necessary and cut away any remaining dirt, leaves, sand or pine needles. If you are storing them (they should be refrigerated in a brown paper bag, not plastic), clean them just before use.

Wild mushrooms in restaurants can be as elusive as those in the field. Chefs who gather their own (or have friends who do) may come across a small patch of chanterelles or a flush of morels, but sometimes the hunt will turn up nothing or an early group of customers will have devoured the evening's supply. Restaurants in San Francisco rely on an idiosyncratic mix of sources, including the Monterey Market, their regular produce suppliers and their own foragers.

In San Francisco I have eaten chanterelles folded into a dense Gruyere-laden souffle at Cafe Jacqueline in North Beach, been too late for chanterelles stuffed into guinea hens at the Zuni Cafe & Grill on Market Street, and too early for chanterelles served in risotto. (I was amply compensated with sweet, chewy commercially grown portobellos on a light, crunchy pizza with parsley, shavings of Parmesan and a squeeze of lemon.) I've had field mushrooms (Agaricus campestris) chopped fine and stuffed with shiitake and bread crumbs in half an artichoke on the antipasto plate at Greens at Fort Mason, overlooking the bay.

At Chez Panisse in Berkeley, I've seen wild mushrooms with veal sweetbreads and pasta on the dinner menu. At the restaurant's upstairs cafe, I've eaten morels chopped fine into a potato gratin served with grilled chicken breast. (At lunch, wild mushrooms are sauteed with calf's liver, served with polenta.)

The Chez Panisse cookbooks chronicle the restaurant's fungal past -- chanterelles and hedgehogs and horns of plenty (Craterellus cornucopioides), a wonderful, dark, smoky brown gill-less chanterelle, variously sauteed, baked with bread crumbs, herbs and garlic and stuffed into ravioli and lasagna. In "The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook" (Random House, 1982), Ms. Waters includes a dinner menu with black mushrooms with whole pigeons, including the heads, once served to devotees of Baudelaire. But perhaps the oddest and most adventurous form in which I have eaten wild mushrooms recently was at Cindy Pawlcyn's Fog City Diner. There, a small, lightly garlicked mold of custard was served on a sauce with chanterelles, walnuts and chives.

In the spring in northern California, morels are usually most prolific as the snow melts in the Sierra Nevada. Black morels and white morels (Morchellas elata and deliciosa), which are darker and lighter than Morchella esculenta, the morel most common in the Eastern United States, emerge with the red flowering snow plant and are most likely to be found two to five weeks after the snow has disappeared. Black morels may be so abundant in burn areas the year after a fire that a fast picker might walk away from a day's picking with 50 pounds.

This year's heavy rains seem to be producing a bumper crop, and last month, as the season's first morels came down from Oregon and the Sierra Nevada, they began appearing in markets and on menus: in an omelet with oyster mushrooms and creme fraiche at Zuni, in crepes and in a dariole, or mold, of foie gras downstairs at Chez Panisse, in a sweet, creamy, lightly golden gratin of potatoes served with grilled chicken at the Cafe at Chez Panisse, and with Virginia ham with cream gravy at the Fog City Diner. STALKING THE WILD MUSHROOM Into the Woods

The Mycological Society of San Francisco offers guided walks, overnight forays, cooking events and information about other events of mycological interest in northern California. General meetings are held from September through May, at 8 P.M. on the third Tuesday of each month. At 7 P.M., fungi experts are available to help people identify what they have found. May is the month for morels, and several weekend forays into the Sierra Nevada are scheduled in May and June. Post Office Box 11321, San Francisco, Calif. 94101, (415) 759-0495. Eating Out